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Andrea del Verròcchio | The Teacher of Leonardo da Vinci

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Andrea del Verrocchio (born 1435, Florence - died 1488, Venice), 15th-century Florentine sculptor and painter and the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci.
His equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, erected in Venice in 1496, is particularly important.
The only surviving painting that according to documentary proof should be by Verrocchio, an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints in the Donato de’ Medici Chapel of the cathedral at Pistoia, was not completed by the master himself.


Largely executed by his pupil Lorenzo di Credi, its handling is inconsistent with that of the Baptism of Christ (c. 1470-75), which has been attributed to Verrocchio ever since it was first mentioned in 1550 by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) in his Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori italiani… (Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects…).


One of the two angels and part of the distant landscape in the Baptism, however, were certainly painted by his apprentice, the young Leonardo da Vinci.
Other paintings ascribed to Verrocchio are the Madonna in the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz of Berlin, the Tobias and the Angel (c. 1470-75) in the National Gallery in London, and the altarpiece, formerly in Santa Maria in Argiano, with Christ on the Cross between St. Jerome and St. Anthony.

After the mid-1470s Verrocchio dedicated himself principally to sculpture, in which he manifested strong personal convictions and an inventive ability. | © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.













Verròcchio, Andrea del (propr. Andrea di Cione) - Pittore, scultore ed orafo (Firenze 1435 - Venezia 1488).
Annoverato tra le principali figure della vita artistica fiorentina nella seconda metà del 15° secolo, nella scultura il Verròcchio realizzò una monumentalità nuova, che suppone una spazialità non costringibile dentro la prospettiva quattrocentesca e che tende di fatto a rompere l'immobilità in una ricerca di movimento, sia nei gesti che suggeriscono instabilità, sia nelle superfici e negli atteggiamenti psicologici (David, Firenze, Museo nazionale del Bargello; Incredulità di s. Tommaso, Firenze, Orsanmichele).
Nella pittura, un'attenta lettura delle opere fiamminghe, imprime un nuovo realismo alle composizioni con intenso studio di tipi nuovi, anche nel superamento delle consuetudini iconografiche. | © Treccani